Steven Spielberg's Alien Thriller Is Officially a Streaming Hit

2026 has turned out to be the year of the sci-fi genre. This year, we have seen a handful of mind-blowing films, like Alan Ritchson's alien invasion feature War Machine on Netflix, A24's Backrooms, which seamlessly blends psychological horror with interdimensional travel, and Ryan Gosling's Project Hail Mary, which made fans go, "amaze, amaze, amaze," with its heartfelt companionship between an alien and a human. But no one tells the story of extraterrestrial beings like Steven Spielberg.

The acclaimed director has given us a range of stories, like E.T. the Extraterrestrial, War of the Worlds, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, among others. This year, he returned to the genre with Disclosure Day, which provides fans with the perfect exhilarating environment to escape into a different world. Written by Spielberg's long-time collaborator David Koepp, the feature runs like a conspiracy thriller rather than another alien invasion story. Rather than slowly introducing us to the world, the feature throws us directly into a world already on the brink of geopolitical annihilation and nuclear war.

We follow a local television meteorologist, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), whose life is completely upended after an encounter with a cardinal bird, causing her to suddenly begin speaking and understanding a complex alien language. She teams up with a cybersecurity expert, Daniel (Josh O'Connor), working for Wardex and is on the run after uncovering dirty secrets of his company. Together they race against time to expose the truth.

The feature touches upon the themes of truth vs power, with the narrative serving a sharp critique of government and corporate orthodoxy. Nonetheless, the core theme of Disclosure Day remains human beliefs vs faith as we see a meditation unfolding on how world-shattering cosmic revelations impact human faith. The 79% Rotten Tomatoes-rated film polarized its audience, as some hailed it as a timely story, while others criticized it as a bloated and hurried one with a lot of exposition dumps but none complained about the amazing action sequences. Nonetheless, the film has cemented itself as a hit on streaming.

Disclosure Day Quietly Trumps Streaming Charts

Disclosure Day is going strong on various PVOD and streaming platforms, nearing 100 days on Apple TV Store charts, as per Flix Patrol. While on Amazon, it has maintained its position for over 50 days. Currently, it's sitting in the #7 spot on Prime Video's global top 10 list, which also includes Backrooms, Obsession, In the Grey, Practical Magic, and more.